God is Crazy

God is not a safe and predictable deity. In fact, He likes to do wild, crazy things that grab people’s attention and demand an audience.

I’ve learned a lot in the six months since quitting my job to pursue this entrepreneurial and faith journey. The most notable being this: God likes to do things differently.

So, let me get real with you. The whole reason I do what I do is because I believe God has given me a message to share. I don’t care about book sales, or popularity, or any of that fancy stuff. The reason I write and speak is to share with you the Jesus that I have come to know and love, because frankly, He is so much more than I ever realized. And sadly, many of us are stuck in a place of not knowing the real God.

But because God has given me this message, I feel a certain amount of responsibility to get that message out into the world. So sometimes I research ways to promote my book, grow my audience, increase my blog traffic, or book more speaking opportunities. And every time I hear this little voice saying, “That’s not how I work. I do things differently.”

Recently, I got to experience God’s way of doing things differently. It was awesome, and I want to share that story with you.

Long before I first started speaking, God began preparing me to become a messenger for Him. Several years ago, I began having little visions or pictures that would play out in my mind, images of me speaking to a large group of people. Not only did I see myself speaking, but words flooded my mind. I would later learn God was giving me a message to share. And the cool part is, not long after I started having these visions, God gave me an opportunity to speak and share that message at a conference.

Well, at the beginning of this year, it started happening again. I started having visions, moments where I would picture myself speaking. This time, I recognized it for what it was: God was preparing me to speak again.

I didn’t mention it to anyone at first, but I finally said something to my mom towards the end of January. I was working with a digital media editor on the promotional video I recently rolled out, so speaking was fresh on my mind. I said to my mom, “I’m glad I’m getting this promotional video finished, because I think God is getting me ready to speak again in the near future.” That was it, a minor, little mention in the midst of our conversation.

The next day (I mean, literally, the very next day), I got a text message from one of my best friends. She said, “Hey, I just met a woman who is having a women’s ministry kickoff event. She’s looking for a speaker. Can I give her your phone number?”

After I picked my jaw up off the floor, I text her back saying, “Of course!” I was blown away. After all the research I’d done, after all the connections I tried to make, God had a different plan. And it was awesome!

After speaking at this event last Friday, I know why God sent me there: they were a group of people who were ready to receive the message.

We need to remember that even when we can’t see it, God is working behind the scenes. If God has given you a Kingdom mission, He, more than anyone, will support, promote, connect, and lead you. He is always at His work. And we should be too. But if we are doing God’s work, we need to be ready and willing to do things a little differently.

Why? Because God wants us and others to share the kind of stories where the only response is, “Wow. How great is our God!”